President Yoon Suk Yeol enters the briefing room at the presidential office in Seoul on April 22, 2024. (Yonhap)
President Yoon Suk Yeol vowed to protect the "value of labor" as he marked Labor Day on Wednesday.
Yoon also said in a Facebook post that South Korea's remarkable growth was thanks to the "sweat and efforts" of its 28.4 million workers.
"The government and I will protect the precious value of labor without fail," he wrote. "We will make your workplaces safer and fairer, and thoroughly see to it that you can find the meaning of life through labor."
Meanwhile, the nation's two major umbrella unions held large-scale rallies nationwide to commemorate Labor Day. The rallies ended without any incidents.
An estimated total of 33,000 people joined the events in Seoul alone, according to organizers.
Members of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, the more militant of the two major umbrella unions, called for the resignation of the Yoon Suk Yeol government and greater labor rights in a rally held in the central district of Jongno.
An estimated 25,000 members packed a six-lane motorway stretching from Gwanghwamun to near Seoul City Hall during the rally.
At the same time, about 8,000 members of the Federation of Korean Trade Unions, the other major umbrella union, gathered in front of the National Assembly in western Seoul.
The group called for improving various labor rights, including a four-day workweek, and urged the government to stop its effort to differentiate the minimum wage by business sector.
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